I had my first practice ride from Rowville to Boronia on the eastlink trail and I can say that it was my first road bike experience. What can I say, it was stunning. Even more satisfying was knowing I built the bike up myself from a complete tear down.

It was an awesome day indeed. I found the acceleration on the road bike insane when comparing to the mountain bike i've been using in the past.

Even after a small 30km ride I had enough energy to race the cars at the lights (i was on the bike track next to the road) and got to around 55-60km an hour. Never realised the bike made such a difference, even with this old Gitane Mach 1200 with an alloy frame

Finally knocked out my first 100km ride this arvo (105km in 4hrs 9 mins).Very happy to have got this under my belt now, it was playing on my mind for a while if I'd ever get there.

The legs are a bit sore but not as bad as I thought they'd be.The worst part was that my quads felt really cold after about 60km's and I pushed through it and kept going but when I got home they were so sore.After a nice warm shower they feel SO much better. Otherwise no real sores to speak of (my backside even stood up to the test perfectly fine).

i'm still a little bit away from reaching the 100km mark, I was suffering from Lactic acid build up after around 50km but still pushed on to do 84km.

I believe my derailuer is bent because even with super fine adjustments I can't get the smaller gear on the crank to not touch the deraileur when using all the varied gears on the rear wheel.

Doesn't help that in my adjustments on the front deraileur that it was a bit too adjusted and the chain fell off, considering I was 30km from home and had no gloves or tissues so I ended up having to ride with greasy gritty hands

I went from rowville to Chandler Highway all the way along the east link trail and the kyong trail. Boy there are some very difficult hills on that run

It must have been the day for chain derailments - I had mine come off as well.I find a tyre lever can make the job non-greasy, so you don't have to touch the chain with your hands.

Sound like your bike may need a trip to the LBS for adjusting. I might book mine in this week for a service.It' been about 1000km's since it's last tune-up...and with free 12 months servicing I might as well use it.

It must have been the day for chain derailments - I had mine come off as well.I find a tyre lever can make the job non-greasy, so you don't have to touch the chain with your hands.

Sound like your bike may need a trip to the LBS for adjusting. I might book mine in this week for a service.It' been about 1000km's since it's last tune-up...and with free 12 months servicing I might as well use it.

Dave

Hi Dave,

Thanks I think that particlar ride through Mullum Mullum is very difficult indeed, there are hills everywhere haha.Yeah it must have been the sort of day for it haha. I might get a new deraileur and get it "roughly" in position and take it down to the LBS to see if they can get it shifting a bit nicer for me.

Seems like I may have bruised my bum bone hahaha. It was sore on my ride on Saturday so I changed seats to see if it would help yesterday and I don't think it had quite recovered. I could see myself sliding too much to the front of the seat too, so it looks like the seat position should change. I think I may need a slightly taller headstem too.

adrian_d wrote: and had no gloves or tissues so I ended up having to ride with greasy gritty hands

Well done on the progress, Adrian. I'm attempting the 210km. That'll take me more than ten hours. When the days get longer I'll be looking to increase my training distances too, but yesterday I got a real intensity workout by climbing MT Donna Buang with the MBTC. Snow at the side of the road and all!

A tip with having to become an impromptu bike mechanic - I keep two latex disposable gloves stuffed into one of those Kinder Surprise containers. Tiny, and stops them getting ripped when spending time in your backpack or bag.

adrian_d wrote: and had no gloves or tissues so I ended up having to ride with greasy gritty hands

Well done on the progress, Adrian. I'm attempting the 210km. That'll take me more than ten hours. When the days get longer I'll be looking to increase my training distances too, but yesterday I got a real intensity workout by climbing MT Donna Buang with the MBTC. Snow at the side of the road and all!

A tip with having to become an impromptu bike mechanic - I keep two latex disposable gloves stuffed into one of those Kinder Surprise containers. Tiny, and stops them getting ripped when spending time in your backpack or bag.

Great advice there mate, what I wouldn't have done for some gloves.

Do you have any advice in items to bring for lunch when cycling? i ended up forgetting to bring some food and only had a few cookies and a cheese and biscuits pack to eat. I was so hungry I was actually dizzy

The worst thing at the moment is the build up of lactic acid. It was agonising

adrian_d wrote:Do you have any advice in items to bring for lunch when cycling? i ended up forgetting to bring some food and only had a few cookies and a cheese and biscuits pack to eat. I was so hungry I was actually dizzy

adrian_d wrote:I went from rowville to Chandler Highway all the way along the east link trail and the kyong trail. Boy there are some very difficult hills on that run

This area is quite near me, I was wondering. what is the surface like? Is it concrete/tarmac or gravel? I only have a road bike so I can't take it on gravel but there are some great trails around the area like warburton and the one that goes from Dandenong to Carrum etc. They'd be great to train on IMO - much better than roads with traffic, but I don't know what they're like in terms of surface..

North of Koomba Park (Boronia Road) it is a sealed surface (concrete or tarmac) all the way to Fairfield and on to the city. However through the Mullum Creek area there are some timber boardwalks... one in particular that runs down a slope..... and has a bend halfway along ! I've never liked that concept at all. Be careful on it on wet days or on frosty early mornings.

blatant wrote:I only have a road bike so I can't take it on gravel

Why ever not ?? My road bike has 19mm tyres (old Avocet TT30s from the 90s) but I would happily ride it along the Warburton Trail.... and have. 23-25mm tyres should cope readily with a bit of good gravel, as long as you have them up to pressure. Back in the day (pre-MTBs) a lot more roads were unsealed and there were very few shared paths, so we had to ride on gravel, often with 25mm or 28mm tyres.

il padrone wrote:North of Koomba Park (Boronia Road) it is a sealed surface (concrete or tarmac) all the way to Fairfield and on to the city. However through the Mullum Creek area there are some timber boardwalks... one in particular that runs down a slope..... and has a bend halfway along ! I've never liked that concept at all. Be careful on it on wet days or on frosty early mornings.

blatant wrote:I only have a road bike so I can't take it on gravel

Why ever not ?? My road bike has 19mm tyres (old Avocet TT30s from the 90s) but I would happily ride it along the Warburton Trail.... and have. 23-25mm tyres should cope readily with a bit of good gravel, as long as you have them up to pressure. Back in the day (pre-MTBs) a lot more roads were unsealed and there were very few shared paths, so we had to ride on gravel, often with 25mm or 28mm tyres.

Kids today, pahh!

tried it at lysterfield lake recently and it wasn't fun!is warburton completely unsealed?

Yes, all except the first 1-2 kms out of Lilydale and the last 3kms into Warburton.

Lysterfiled Lake is fairly rough forest tracks and then there's the MTB trails. Most gravel shared trails are much better to ride, even most gravel roads will be better as they will be more compacted. You do need to learn how to pick the best line (avoiding the piled gravel, corrugations and potholes. It is very feasible to ride a 25mm tyre on a good gravel road.

il padrone wrote:North of Koomba Park (Boronia Road) it is a sealed surface (concrete or tarmac) all the way to Fairfield and on to the city. However through the Mullum Creek area there are some timber boardwalks... one in particular that runs down a slope..... and has a bend halfway along ! I've never liked that concept at all. Be careful on it on wet days or on frosty early mornings.

blatant wrote:I only have a road bike so I can't take it on gravel

Why ever not ?? My road bike has 19mm tyres (old Avocet TT30s from the 90s) but I would happily ride it along the Warburton Trail.... and have. 23-25mm tyres should cope readily with a bit of good gravel, as long as you have them up to pressure. Back in the day (pre-MTBs) a lot more roads were unsealed and there were very few shared paths, so we had to ride on gravel, often with 25mm or 28mm tyres.

Kids today, pahh!

My road bike is too pretty to be ridden on gravel, no matter how compacted it is

I recently registered for the 100km from Sorrento to Melbourne as i have only ridden distances of around 50km-80km a few times. However reading all of your posts has convinced me to train hard and push for the 210km M-S-Q-M. I plan on spending some time with my trainer to write a plan and ensure im covering KM's every week and get at least 4 x 100-150km rides under my belt.

I have a goal of riding from Sydney to Melbourne for charity next year and this will put me on the right track.

Brentus wrote:I recently registered for the 100km from Sorrento to Melbourne as i have only ridden distances of around 50km-80km a few times. However reading all of your posts has convinced me to train hard and push for the 210km M-S-Q-M. I plan on spending some time with my trainer to write a plan and ensure im covering KM's every week and get at least 4 x 100-150km rides under my belt.

I have a goal of riding from Sydney to Melbourne for charity next year and this will put me on the right track.

See you all there!

THIS might be useful to you (you might need to ignore the first couple of weeks (as there's only about 10 weeks to go until the ride)

Yesterday the wife had to leave for work at 8:30 so I decided on a run.Distance: 20.75 kmTime: 2:16:37Avg Pace: 6:35 min/kmElevation Gain: 179 mCalories: 2,516 C

It was my best run for 20km+ and I knocked a minute & half of my previous 20km+ run. I am confident come the Melbourne Marathon Half I should be able to crack 2:15 for the run

Today I backed up with a ride and the legs were sore after yeasterdays run but hey what a little bit of pain I left home for the basin and rode all the way to Sky High. I did a pb on the 1:20 and a pb on the basin to sky high so I am happy with that. I then headed for Croydon Hills, into ringwood, forest hill and then home via Vermont and Baystwater. I enjoyed the route and will do it again, maybe not after running 20km the day before

so right now I am in a bit of pain contemplating cleaning my bike and wondering what to do over the next week. I will aim to run Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday with my usual 60km ride on Saturday. I am busy next Sunday so I wont be able to get in any big ride but another 60km could be on the cards

So this week has been a bit of a recovery week as last weekend hurt more than I originally thought

I didnt run until Wednesday and it was slow. By Friday I had come good and yesterdays ride was a short 37km burst as the wife was going to work early.

Today........ well lets just say someone had a very big night and I will earn more brownie points for giving up a nice sunny morning looking after the kids than making someone getting up at 7 after only 4 hours sleep

On the positive my work bonus came in last week and I have a wiggle & evans order on its way. Once that gets here I will take the mountain bike out for some 5am spins around Lilydale Lake on my off days.

The other thing I ordered was a set of TWE wheels, hopefully they will make a very nice fathers day present for myself

good work YVP. not having kids myself i cant imagine what it would be like to give up an early ride, but i can see how amazing it must feel to be able to hang out with the kids and muck around.you will absolutely smash ATB mate, dont doubt it at all after reading your posts

Great stuff YVP...sometimes a good rest is just as important as a decent ride (and may even give you a little extra motivation next time you jump on the bike - I know it does for me)...and the brownie points are a great bonus.

As for my training I clocked up 90km's during the week and 150km's this weekend (50km on Sat and 100km this morning) - so 240km's all up this week.Feeling really good after the 100km this morning and could have gone further (which is encouraging) - except for the 4 separate magpie attacks during the course of my ride (damn birds) which were a little off-putting.

Hopefully the weather starts to improve a little soon so i can start cranking out some more km's during the week (though the cold weather accessories I am waiting to receive from Wiggle will come in handy once they arrive).

Looking forward to hear how the TWE wheels go on the F75 in due course.

I've had 5 weeks off the bike with a broken bone (5th metatarsal) in my right foot. I managed to get it into my riding shoe yesterday, but it was still very tight and a bit painful.Maybe I'll be back on the bike next weekShould be right for around the bay, but I'm not sure how my stamina will hold up.

DoogleDave wrote:Feeling really good after the 100km this morning and could have gone further (which is encouraging) - except for the 4 separate magpie attacks during the course of my ride (damn birds) which were a little off-putting.

Hopefully the weather starts to improve a little soon so i can start cranking out some more km's during the week (though the cold weather accessories I am waiting to receive from Wiggle will come in handy once they arrive).

Dave

dave i got attacked by maggies on the way to kinglake yesterday, scared the ish out of me didnt even hear it coming and hear the snap of the wings haha!cant wait for the cold weather at night to go away, will crank out the sessions then woohoo!

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